Escape from Paradise 2 Review

The
Good

The
Bad

Some mini-games feel clumsy. No hint system. No ability to adjust game speed. Some issues with buiding system.

Escape from Paradise 2: A Kingdom’s Quest is the sequel to Gogii Games Virtual Villagers-style sim game Escape from Paradise. With the help of the royal Perusah and an ever-growing tribe, our Hero must discover many of the islands secrets through strategy, mini-games, and various challenges befitting a legendary Hero and tribal leader.

The game begins with you, the Hero, stranded on a mysterious island. It’s your destiny to aid Perusah, the tribal Prince or Princess, and child of the Island King. You can customize your character to have whatever look and gender you’d like, and the King’s child depends on your own character’s gender. The Hero must complete numerous tasks at the bidding of the various tribal inhabitants of the island in order to restore it to its long former glory and rise to the rank of the new King.

A Kingdom’s Quest takes place on the island. The island is relatively large, and as your progress in the game, new areas will be uncovered. Each area features one or more new tribal inhabitants who will offer you something in return for your services. Challenges include building new huts, wells, food storage, finding various creatures or objects, and completing mini-games.

You’re not alone: you will also have the help of new tribe members whom will show up over the course of the game, with a maximum of 30 members in your tribe. You will have one Golden Tiki, who is maxed out in all stats and abilities, as well as a monkey named Taz, whom you will need to uncover various hidden objects and secrets scattered throughout the island. Taz also gives you the ability to play a variety of mini-games that don’t only earn you needed goal-objects, but also increase your skills and abilities, food, and wood reserves.

You will need to keep your tribesmen (and yourself!) satisfied in hunger, thirst, sleep, and social in order for them to be happiest and therefore work most effectively. Tribesmen can be leveled up a total of three times in three areas: carpentry, woodcutting, and food gathering.

In comparison to its predecessor, Escape from Paradise, A Kingdom’s Quest implements some different features. For example, unlike the first game, this title can be paused at any time. When you shut off your computer or close out your game, the game will save at the exact point you closed out. When you start it up again, it will start from the moment you left off.

Unlike some other games, you don’t have to worry about your tribes people dying. If their stats are low, they will slump when walking and work poorly, but they won’t die. Villagers will also automatically eat, drink, or sleep if you neglect them. Game speed, however, cannot be adjusted, making some activities feel very long and unnecessarily drawn-out.

A longer and much more challenging title than most casual games, A Kingdom’s Quest is a refreshing taste of simulation mixed with mini-games. There is a lot to do on the island, and most tasks do not have a simple, linear style of accomplishment and instead require you to think and strategize. The element of managing the happiness of your inhabitants means that there is always something to do. While your villagers are working on a certain task, you can play mini-games with Taz. They will continue to work and level-up while you play.

Mini-games include Tiki Match Three, Hidden Object levels, and even Sudoku. Tasks aren’t obvious and require you to be more adventurous.

Unfortunately, that very quality makes the game difficult and potentially frustrating. For example, Taz the monkey is the only one who can see secret hidden objects, and only when he’s standing nearby. If you’re not playing as Taz, chances are you’re not going to find what you’re looking for.

Hidden objects are hidden very, very well. Hidden object mini-games, on the other hand, are lacking, and while you may have found the correct object, many times you will have to click on it numerous times in numerous spots before the game will pick it up. Other mini-games, such as the Sudoku title, are quite difficult.

Furthermore, you have the ability to place your various buildings wherever you’d like – a nice quality, right? But oftentimes placing it within a certain vicinity will cause your tribesman to not perform tasks properly or refuse to move to a certain area entirely.

The game features a very op-ended form of gaming. It’s all good and fun until you don’t know what to do next or where to find something, and then there’s no hint system to help you. This can make the game frustrating when you’re not sure what to do next. Lastly, the role of becoming the new King of the Island and taking the hand of the royal child is simply an object of storyline, and does not introduce a new quest or form of gameplay as it might imply to some.

Overall, Escape from Paradise 2: A Kingdom’s Quest is a fun game that promises manyhours of gameplay and a buffet of original mini-games, but some elements could have been implemented more smoothly. A hint system would have done wonders for this game, seeing how creative it is in hiding important objects. Those who like Virtual Villagers-style games and the first Escape from Paradise are sure to love A Kingdom’s Quest, but those new or unfamiliar with challenging adventure games could easily be intimidated and frustrated by this title.